Normal procedure for bending right angles is for the kit manufacturer to put a half-etched fold line in the part to be folded. Sometimes these are not made wide enough and you have to file them bigger On this kit the front steps were folded up from flat brass in this way, with the upper step treads added afterwards.

Later in the build I have to form the engine housing from flat brass. There are a number of half etched lines to help in the process. If I remember, I'll get my to take some photo's as I'm doing this.

Normal procedure for bending right angles is for the kit manufacturer to put a half-etched fold line in the part to be folded. Sometimes these are not made wide enough and you have to file them bigger On this kit the front steps were folded up from flat brass in this way, with the upper step treads added afterwards.

Later in the build I have to form the engine housing from flat brass. There are a number of half etched lines to help in the process. If I remember, I'll get my to take some photo's as I'm doing this.

Some more progress Not much, and not enough to show up in photos yet. I managed to get the window trims and some of the rivet strips onto the cab this evening. Progress has been mainly because I've been down with a cold, which I most likely caught at last week's kid's club. This has had a knock on effect on work, and then onto railway modelling .

Some more progress Not much, and not enough to show up in photos yet. I managed to get the window trims and some of the rivet strips onto the cab this evening. Progress has been mainly because I've been down with a cold, which I most likely caught at last week's kid's club. This has had a knock on effect on work, and then onto railway modelling .

"The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft aglay" as our Scottish bard would have it. Life kind of took over and no modelling was done over the weekend.

However, yesterday was somewhat better

I've managed to finsh adding the external details to the cab apart from the lamp irons which go on later.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice a mismatch in the fixing bolts at the front of the loco. There's a simple reason -I dropped one of the originals and I don't have any that length in stock . The LHS is about 30 miles away, which seems a bit far to go just for a few nuts and bolts [petrol here is 92p per litre. That's about US $1.5 per litre!]

The hand rails are formed from 0.4mm wire using a bending jig that I bought a few months ago. I wasn't sure about it when I bought it, but now that it's been in use I'm glad I did.

If you thought progress was slow so far, it'll be worse over the next few weeks. I'm off to Italy for a fortnight from Sept 5th, so no modelling then. I hope to get some more done before I leave.

"The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft aglay" as our Scottish bard would have it. Life kind of took over and no modelling was done over the weekend.

However, yesterday was somewhat better

I've managed to finsh adding the external details to the cab apart from the lamp irons which go on later.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice a mismatch in the fixing bolts at the front of the loco. There's a simple reason -I dropped one of the originals and I don't have any that length in stock . The LHS is about 30 miles away, which seems a bit far to go just for a few nuts and bolts [petrol here is 92p per litre. That's about US $1.5 per litre!]

The hand rails are formed from 0.4mm wire using a bending jig that I bought a few months ago. I wasn't sure about it when I bought it, but now that it's been in use I'm glad I did.

If you thought progress was slow so far, it'll be worse over the next few weeks. I'm off to Italy for a fortnight from Sept 5th, so no modelling then. I hope to get some more done before I leave.

Glad to see you're making some progress. Several years ago I built a metal building and found the key was figuring how to clamp things together. What did you use to hold the sides of the cab in position while you soldered them?

Glad to see you're making some progress. Several years ago I built a metal building and found the key was figuring how to clamp things together. What did you use to hold the sides of the cab in position while you soldered them?

Some more progress, but of the kind that is not obvious if the kit isn't right in front of you.

On the left, the loco so far. On the right the outer cab floor. The way this kit is designed the cab floor is modelled in 2 pieces. There is the outer floor as shown here which is fixed to the cab, and an inner floor that will be fixed to the frames. It's the first time I've come across this. The idea is that the finished loco will be easily broken down for painting etc. We'll see.

Since George has asked about holding items in the correct orientation I thought a shot showing my weapons of choice might be useful.

This is obviously a posed shot, my work area is never that tidy .

For holding parts in place I use one of the following:

1:1 scale fingers. Here I have the advantage of having been a research chemist in a previous occupation, which means that I became used to holding things that were considered hot by "normal" people. I also play guitar (not too well tho') and the callouses are useful.

If the nearness of flesh to heat is going to be too much, or if 1:1 fingers are too large for the job in hand I use tweezers/forceps to hold the parts and tack solder them in place. This makes it easy to adjust the fit before finally completing the joint. All fairly standard stuff.

I use a small 15W soldering iron. Main construction is done using 188 solder, with details added using 145. If I need more heat I use a small gas torch.

Some more progress, but of the kind that is not obvious if the kit isn't right in front of you.

On the left, the loco so far. On the right the outer cab floor. The way this kit is designed the cab floor is modelled in 2 pieces. There is the outer floor as shown here which is fixed to the cab, and an inner floor that will be fixed to the frames. It's the first time I've come across this. The idea is that the finished loco will be easily broken down for painting etc. We'll see.

Since George has asked about holding items in the correct orientation I thought a shot showing my weapons of choice might be useful.

This is obviously a posed shot, my work area is never that tidy .

For holding parts in place I use one of the following:

1:1 scale fingers. Here I have the advantage of having been a research chemist in a previous occupation, which means that I became used to holding things that were considered hot by "normal" people. I also play guitar (not too well tho') and the callouses are useful.

If the nearness of flesh to heat is going to be too much, or if 1:1 fingers are too large for the job in hand I use tweezers/forceps to hold the parts and tack solder them in place. This makes it easy to adjust the fit before finally completing the joint. All fairly standard stuff.

I use a small 15W soldering iron. Main construction is done using 188 solder, with details added using 145. If I need more heat I use a small gas torch.